Something Random

Chewy509

Wotty wot wot.
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
3,357
Location
Gold Coast Hinterland, Australia
Australian F-111 entering retirement

Today, the RAAF bid farewell it's F-111 fleet, officially placing the RAAFs F-111s into retirement.

Acquired in 1973 they have served the RAAF well for the past 37 years. Such a sad day to see the 'pig' being retired.

I remember the first time I saw one at an airshow - absolutely a beautiful aircraft. Then the privilege of seeing them in action (albeit in training) dropping a stick of mk82 on the range - friggen awesome! :cheers:

I salute thee. :salut:

ADF Media Release:

http://www.minister.defence.gov.au/Claretpl.cfm?CurrentId=11174

Pics -
http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/2010/Dec/20101203d/index.htm
http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/2010/Dec/20101203c/index.htm
http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/2010/Dec/20101203a/index.htm
 

Chewy509

Wotty wot wot.
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
3,357
Location
Gold Coast Hinterland, Australia
I would just like to wish my main PC 'Hellfire' a happy 6th birthday...

Current config:
Tyan K8W motherboard
2x AMD Opteron 242 @ 1.6GHz
2GB RAM (4x 512MB Reg ECC DDR 400)
4x Seagate 10K.6 36GB in RAID 10*
Adaptec ASR-2120S RAID Controller
1x Seagate 500GB IDE**
Adaptec AHA-39160 SCSI Controller
VXA-1 Tape Drive on 39160 controller
Pioneer DVR-107D DVD-RW Drive (IDE)
GeForce FX5500 AGP***
2x 20" LCD (1680x1050) - both on VGA.
Antec 1040BX case w 4x 80mm fans
Antec TruePower II 550W EPS12V PSU ****

Currently running Solaris 10 u8.

* - 1x 10K.6 died replaced under warranty
** - Originally a 400GB, replaced with a 500GB under warranty.
*** - Originally a ATI R9600XT - died when fan failed.
**** - Originally an Antec TruePower 1 550W EPS12V - died and replaced with a TruePower II 550W EPS12V PSU under warranty.

Has run in the past:
WinXP x64
FreeBSD 6.x
CRUX Linux 2.1
Solaris Express / OpenSolaris

For Uni I'm using a Asus 1001HA netbook running Arch Linux.
 

timwhit

Hairy Aussie
Joined
Jan 23, 2002
Messages
5,278
Location
Chicago, IL
How do you like Arch? The part that always sounded nice to me was that the rolling release. It would be nice to never have to worry about doing a version upgrade again.

I recently moved over to OpenSuse 11.3 from Fedora 14. I found Fedora to lack polish and was having weird issues with my sound.
 

ddrueding

Fixture
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
Messages
19,729
Location
Horsens, Denmark
I'm looking for a good analogy/explanation of horsepower. Torque is easier because it can exist in a static-ish system. Does anyone have a suggestion?
 

BingBangBop

Storage is cool
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
667
How many horses does it take to pull a car up a hill? My car has the equivalent of 176 horses so that even though it weighs a lot, it can get up it relatively easily because there are 176 of them tied to the front bumper.

Something like that?
 

Chewy509

Wotty wot wot.
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
3,357
Location
Gold Coast Hinterland, Australia
How do you like Arch? The part that always sounded nice to me was that the rolling release. It would be nice to never have to worry about doing a version upgrade again.

I recently moved over to OpenSuse 11.3 from Fedora 14. I found Fedora to lack polish and was having weird issues with my sound.

I like it quite a lot actually, it's certainly better than Fedora or Ubuntu I tried just installing Arch.

The big plus with Arch - you start with a very small core install, and you only install what you need. eg. X is NOT installed by default. All the packages are exactly as published by the respective application developers, none of this customisation or back-porting crap that leads to distro-specific bugs/hacks/work-arounds. Also you know exactly what is on the box.

Also starting with a small core and choosing the rest helps a lot when choosing things like OSS vs ALSA vs PulseAudio or GNOME vs KDE vs XFCE vs Blackbox. You get what you need, nothing more. On my netbook on boot and logged in (using GNOME), my mem usage is roughy 86MB, and that's with GNOME running as my DE.

Having the latest and greatest version is nice as well, mainly from the bugfix perspective.

The other big reason I like Arch is that they still have XMMS in it's main repository, as well as GRIP, Lyx and latex. (XMMS is essentially Winamp on Unix).

The only downside (for me) is updates - they can be big. My last was just under 400MB due to GTK/GNOME being updated, and all the apps that are dependent on those being updated/rebuilt as well. And if you run the update process once a week, you could use quite a bit of bandwidth in just updates.

My only advise - when installing have the install guide handy and another PC with 'net access to read the how-to's on the Arch website especially for WLAN setup. Otherwise have fun with it.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,497
Location
USA
I'm looking for a good analogy/explanation of horsepower. Torque is easier because it can exist in a static-ish system. Does anyone have a suggestion?

It is power like kW. I think in many more advanced countries that is the unit anyway. Horsepower is a ridiculous, ancient unit about as stupid as a yard or pint, etc. :tounge:
Torque is force-distance. Don't they teach these things in elementary school (or whatever it is now) any more?
 

Stereodude

Not really a
Joined
Jan 22, 2002
Messages
10,865
Location
Michigan
How many horses does it take to pull a car up a hill? My car has the equivalent of 176 horses so that even though it weighs a lot, it can get up it relatively easily because there are 176 of them tied to the front bumper.

Something like that?
Except that's more torque. :lol:

HP and Torque are mathematically connected. (Torque x Engine RPM) / 5,252 = Horsepower. HP is a measure of power. 1HP = 745.7W 1HP is also 550 foot-pounds per second.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,497
Location
USA
Says so on home page under What's Going On (if you have provided the forum software with your b-day info [I hope, otherwise this is really creepy.])

Yeah. I missed that one. It still seems risky to have that info out there for all bots to see.
 

timwhit

Hairy Aussie
Joined
Jan 23, 2002
Messages
5,278
Location
Chicago, IL
How do you like Arch? The part that always sounded nice to me was that the rolling release. It would be nice to never have to worry about doing a version upgrade again.

I recently moved over to OpenSuse 11.3 from Fedora 14. I found Fedora to lack polish and was having weird issues with my sound.

Looks like OpenSuse will be offering a rolling release as well.
 

Howell

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 24, 2003
Messages
4,740
Location
Chattanooga, TN
This is very useful, thanks. Torque is easy to demonstrate with a torque wrench. HP, not so much.

While it is true that horsepower is a unit of power it makes conceptual understanding easier to know that power = the rate (time) at which Work is done, and Work is related to force acting through a distance. Torque is a form of work and horsepower is a form of power. Which should be more obviously seen in the units, RPM. Additionally, the lb in ft-lb is lb-(force) not lb-(mass). A related but very different unit.

It is also something to keep in mind that usually HP implies sustained HP not peak HP. An average human can output an order of magnitude more peak horsepower than sustained horsepower and trained athletes can produce more of both.
 

Stereodude

Not really a
Joined
Jan 22, 2002
Messages
10,865
Location
Michigan
So, for no apparent good reason I decided to replace my Linksys WRT54G running the Tomato firmware with a D-link DIR-655 yesterday. I got the D-link from Newegg in their Black Friday sale. I only have 1 wireless "N" device that I use and it pretty much only surfs the web. The D-link works fine (so far), but it's not really doing much more for me than the old Linksys.

Why did I buy it again? :scratch:
 

Howell

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 24, 2003
Messages
4,740
Location
Chattanooga, TN
I like it quite a lot actually, it's certainly better than Fedora or Ubuntu I tried just installing Arch.

My plan is to replace the base OS on my laptop with Arch to host my Virtualbox VMs and get some resources back. I've only made it as far as creating the VM to learn the OS.
:aok:
 

Howell

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 24, 2003
Messages
4,740
Location
Chattanooga, TN
no, it's just some kind of plastic goggle/s
I'm looking out of both eyes. But my left eye is the one which gets the useable image, and my brain picks that out and deciphers it. I am thinking that as the right eye heals and stabilizes, I will be getting a useable image out of it, too. And soon, hopefully.

My Dad had both eyes done last summer. Its the first time I've ever seen him without glasses.

I'll be praying for you.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
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USA
Yikes! Maybe the analogy should be one fish swallowed by a larger one. :mad::
 

jtr1962

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 25, 2002
Messages
4,374
Location
Flushing, New York
It is also something to keep in mind that usually HP implies sustained HP not peak HP. An average human can output an order of magnitude more peak horsepower than sustained horsepower and trained athletes can produce more of both.
This actually applies to both humans and electric motors. An electric motor can typically output several times its continuous output for a very short time, and lesser multiples for longer durations. As for humans, I've more or less figured out my own output levels based on my speeds and the terrain while cycling. I can average just north of 200 watts for the duration of a typical ride ( say 75 to 90 minutes ). Going up hills, I've found I can hold 325 watts for about a minute, 400 watts for maybe 30 seconds. My peak power is in the area of around 900-1000 watts based on my ability to go from a dead stop to 20 mph in around 5 seconds. This is ~5 times my continuous output. For comparison purposes some of the better elite cyclists peak at over 1200 watts, and can average 400 watts for an hour. It seems then as conditioning improves, the ratio of peak to continuous output drops.
 

Stereodude

Not really a
Joined
Jan 22, 2002
Messages
10,865
Location
Michigan
I'm especially wondering that after DNS magically stopped working this afternoon. I could ping my ISP's DNS servers through the router, but none of the PCs on the networks could resolve anything. Their DNS entries are set to the Dlink router (192.168.1.1). It didn't start working again until I released and renewed the WAN side address. It renewed with the exact same information as it had before I released it, but just started working again.

This is not a good omen. :tdown:

I think I will switch back to the Linksys while I'm out of town next week since I don't need my wife complaining about the Internet while I'm gone since I won't be here to keep an eye on it.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,497
Location
USA
This actually applies to both humans and electric motors. An electric motor can typically output several times its continuous output for a very short time, and lesser multiples for longer durations. As for humans, I've more or less figured out my own output levels based on my speeds and the terrain while cycling. I can average just north of 200 watts for the duration of a typical ride ( say 75 to 90 minutes ). Going up hills, I've found I can hold 325 watts for about a minute, 400 watts for maybe 30 seconds. My peak power is in the area of around 900-1000 watts based on my ability to go from a dead stop to 20 mph in around 5 seconds. This is ~5 times my continuous output. For comparison purposes some of the better elite cyclists peak at over 1200 watts, and can average 400 watts for an hour. It seems then as conditioning improves, the ratio of peak to continuous output drops.

I don't know how much power a leopard can produce but the acceleration and leaping are amazing for an animal the size of a human. The first time your eyes don't track properly because they move so fast. Of course they can't sustain the speeds for long.
 

jtr1962

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 25, 2002
Messages
4,374
Location
Flushing, New York
I don't know how much power a leopard can produce but the acceleration and leaping are amazing for an animal the size of a human. The first time your eyes don't track properly because they move so fast. Of course they can't sustain the speeds for long.
On a power output per kg of body weight measure humans are pretty pathethic as animals go. A leopard or cheetah running at full speed is likely developing upwards of 10 kW and weighs roughly the same as a human. Even a common housecat can run at up to 30 mph.

More on human power output:

http://wattbike.com/uk/guide/using_the_wattbike/power_to_weight_ratio

The pathethic part is unless I'm doing my watt calculations wrong, I pretty much fall into the "untrained" category despite cycling over 3000 miles this year. Pretty depressing. :( If I lost another 25 pounds, which is my goal, while maintaining the same output, then I might fall somewhere between cat4 and cat5.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,497
Location
USA
So, for no apparent good reason I decided to replace my Linksys WRT54G running the Tomato firmware with a D-link DIR-655 yesterday. I got the D-link from Newegg in their Black Friday sale. I only have 1 wireless "N" device that I use and it pretty much only surfs the web. The D-link works fine (so far), but it's not really doing much more for me than the old Linksys.

Why did I buy it again? :scratch:

Perhaps because you like buying things on sale?
(I don't have any wireless, so I neglected the sales.)
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,497
Location
USA
Is it normal to heard sounds coming from the wireless mouse? Maybe the power supply. :?:
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
22,275
Location
I am omnipresent
Kind of related to SD's "Why did I buy that new router?" story:

One of my Thinkpads' wireless NIC is misbehaving. Not only does it drop connection regularly (every two minutes or so is a best-case, followed by 20 seconds for it to re-acquire the signal), but I'm told that when it is active, other wireless devices often lose their connection.

I verified the problem as a hardware issue with a Linux bootCD, but Lenovo wants me to send in the whole system to replace the card (an Intel 4965AGN), which I don't really want to do.

I can't decide if I should call back and hope a different CSA will ship me the part or just buy an Intel 6330AGN or something and replace it myself.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,497
Location
USA
Maybe it's hungry :mrgrn:

I recently replaced the battery. It is possible that the system in the new case with the large fans is so quiet now that I'm hearing sounds that were always present.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,497
Location
USA
It's good in the sense that I could use a good laugh in the afternoon. 8)
 

Stereodude

Not really a
Joined
Jan 22, 2002
Messages
10,865
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Michigan
Myself, I'm waiting for the replicators and transporters. Then we won't have to deal with UPS, FedEx, or USPS or the TSA & airlines.
 
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